You may occasionally write posts which might be purely promotional. If something is working for you, don’t discontinue it. Combine it with PowerBlogging.

PowerBlogging will only add to the power of your blog. Whatever I’ve taught you helps you add more quality content to your blog. And this in turn increases the amount of quality traffic you get.

Once you start getting quality traffic, you’ll start answering your own “monetization” questions. That’s because opportunities would arise from all directions.

Once you have a high traffic blog, it’s easier to judge the opportunities to monetize it. If you’re just getting a small amount of traffic, and you try to guess how you’ll monetize a high traffic blog, you’ll surely overlook many things.

Maybe you will run into “blogging” joint ventures. Who knows?

But remember one thing, keep an open mind. See how other things you’ve learned about blogging fits into PowerBlogging. Make your own cocktail out of it. Be different, try different stuff. And then you’ll surely be successful

I did not plan on including this section initially. Not because it’s irrelevant or bad. On the contrary, it’s the greatest powerful technique you will possess once you master it. The main problem lies in mastering it.

It’s not difficult. It just requires you to be open-minded, and do things you’ve been advised against all along. Moreover, it’s not a very concrete tactic that everyone will be able to apply instantly.

The gist of the tactic is to open up your mind, do new things everyday. Observe everything you see and experience carefully. Think creatively on how it relates to you, or your current endeavors. And then blog about it.

The greatest example of this is Seth Godin’s own blog. And no wonder why he’s such a great person. You will find endless supply of such examples on his blog, because that’s what he does.

Never confine your attention to just one thing. Vary it.

I’ll throw in my own impromptu example I came up with. Let’s say you were drinking water from a container made of glass, and it accidentally fell down and shattered into pieces.

Everyone around you looks at you, your reaction. What has happened is, you’ve drawn attention. You might be a stranger to all of them, but you’re one such stranger at whom they have stared longer than other strangers.

So, let’s say you try striking up a conversation with someone. And you find that it was easier than you thought, since you’re “familiar” to them due to the “glass incident”. Maybe, conversation may start with that very incident.

Blog about this, and write your experience. Write about how small “accidents” can catch attention, build credibility, and even ease your life.

And don’t be surprised if you form a “fan base”.

Ever read Seth Godin’s blog? Just go and visit it. Seth is truly a great man. I like the way he uses “unrelated” experiences of his to give great marketing advice. Subscribe to his RSS feed, and read it daily. It’ll get your creative juices flowing.

Now, getting to the point. Subscribe to various news site’s RSS feeds. They normally have feeds arranged in categories. Always choose a broad category related to your niche.

The reason for this is, you need to be more broad minded. Sure, the news you see may not be directly related to your niche. But it can contain an important lesson for the people of your niche.

When Obama was elected president, you sure did have an opinion about him, right? You, maybe with your friends and family discussed what made him good, and in what areas he could improve, and stuffs like that. Obama “marketed” himself well. So a marketer would find several “marketing” lessons from this entire election.

But there may be “smaller news”. Not everyone (in your niche) may keep themselves updated with all of them. Keep yourself acquainted with all important news. How does it affect your industry? Does it signify an important lesson figuratively if not literally?

This is only bound by your creativity. Try to look for things in these stuff too. If you see, you will find.

Everyone has his own style and taste, and this very thing could make you different from others.

Other blogs can be a good source of inspiration for ideas. Did you comment on a blog because you liked the post? Why not say that in detail in your own blog? There is no harm in linking to another useful resource. Your visitors will love you for it. If no one linked to each other, there would hardly be any traffic that already thinks highly of you.

Like I said, if you write a post expanding on what your fellow blogger wrote about, then comment on his blog bringing his attention to your post. It is relevant, and it is useful (because you’re a PowerBlogger). It has happened to me. People sometimes link to their own posts somewhat related to my post, and commented on my post about it. I have no problem with it, because the posts they wrote were of quality. And in this way, you won’t be spamming other’s blog just for link building.

You’re providing value. Even if you don’t link to your blog post in your comment, just put your blog’s link or post’s link in the Web Address field of the comment. Those who care will take the pains of going to your blog and searching for the post.

Interacting with other blogs just for links is TOO narrow minded. You should realize the potential of networking with other bloggers.

It has been said in the world of marketing a lot, you need to have contacts. This is no different.

Treat other bloggers with respect, they’ll do the same with you. You’ll soon find that other blogs start linking to you without you asking, just like you link to them in your quality posts.

This idea source is quite different from the two I mentioned above. This should help get your creative juices flowing. Because you will now realize ways of writing posts and monetizing them like never before.

Now a days, “theme clubs” (for Content Management Systems) are very popular. Most of the time, they release a new theme for a CMS every month. And you pay a membership fee per year, which gives you access to all themes released and available during your membership period.

And many such clubs have affiliate program. And let’s assume you are a PowerAffiliate (sorry, couldn’t resist the “special effect”).

Since you like the service, you already have made a post about them a month ago.

But now what? Well, when they release a new theme, write about it! Write about how you feel it is, in your own words. Which type of sites do you think it’d be good for?

Let’s say you and your friend are sitting together, seeing the new theme which has been released. What would be the conversation between you two? What opinion of yours will you tell him? What advice will you give him?

Write a post with all that excitement filled in. And remember, you don’t need to say, “See, this theme is great. So go and buy a membership”. You just have to hyperlink the product name with your affiliate link.

Interested visitors will feel your excitement, and even though you don’t explicitly tell them, they’ll click through your link to find out about the “club” you’ve been talking about.

If there is a discussion in the forum about an affiliate program, you’ll rarely see a call-to-action, “GO HERE AND SIGN-UP NOW”. But, any person interested WILL take the pains to find a way to reach that affiliate program’s homepage. It could be a link, or even a quick search on Google.

Another example is, let’s say you mention about one of your products in a forum post, without giving any link. You just mentioned its name. Those who are interested will take the pains of searching through your signature to find the link. Those not interested will move on.

This is what you gotta do. Does the company you’re affiliated with does something new every now and then? Talk about the new stuff they bring up. State your own opinion about their news. How?

What was your reaction when you read it? What was the first thing that came to your mind? Even if that news was a mere inspiration to some other thought, then why not write about it too?

Express your thoughts, and do it well, again and again.

Yahoo Answers is another good source, which more or less acts like a forum. Why do I recommend Yahoo Answers, when we have forums? It’s not because its another source.

It’s because Yahoo Answers is different

When you are in a niche that has a popular forum (like WarriorForum, and programming related forums), most of the people hang out in the forums. These guys know all the “forum stuff”, and their attitude is more or less predictable.

But did you ever think of joining Yahoo Answers when you were just starting out in your niche yourself? Why? Did you find it childish?

The fact is, you will find a slightly different crowd in Answers. You will be exposed to new possible queries and problems people are having. A quick glance at Answers can give you the entire story about the “current trend” in the niche.

This information is only a search result away. Enter the niche keywords in Answers, set date of question to something like a month (or even 7 days). This will give you the current “trend” of questions in the niche.

Also, one good thing about Answers is that one account gives you access to practically all niches. No maintaining different accounts for “each forum”.

But I highly recommend using all idea sources. What one may contain, another may not.

Many people don’t find time to blog because they spend excessive time on forums. And believe it or not, in forums lies your greatest idea source.

If you’re just a lurker, then you surely have problems expressing your opinions. But, if you post regularly, then congrats! You’re half way through.

Next time you visit a forum (like WarriorForum for the IM niche), and you hit the reply button, open your blog as well. That’s because, when you’re replying to some idea in the forum, you’re expressing your own opinion.

Your opinion is original in the sense that you’re writing what YOU FEEL. And that’s what blogging is all about.

Let’s say you see a forum post by someone asking for “The Best Affiliate Program For Newbies”, you suggest something, as well as learn new things from other’s suggestion.

Now write a detailed blog post on “Best Affiliate Programs For Newbies” on your blog, putting in the same thoughts you had while replying to that topic. Write what you feel.

Your blog post certainly would be more detailed and complete than the forum reply, but you still maintain the “You Attitude” in your blog post. You write as if you’re writing a letter, a reply to someone. And that adds such a great personal feeling. Your blog’s readers would certainly be very happy.

Also, while replying in the forum, you can’t be very selfish. You can’t keep on promoting stuff everywhere. Normally, most of your forum replies would be pure information. And you need to bring this same selflessness to your blog. All newcomers to blogger write every post with a selfish interest. Every post just has one conclusion, “Buy My Stuff!”.

You will have a hard time finding ideas for such “selfish” posts. That’s why “hardworking” novice run out of ideas. They only focus on content that has a direct relation to an affiliate program.

But don’t hit the “Post” button yet! Now that you’ve written a good post, see where you can add affiliate links. In the above example, if the affiliate program was indeed a second-tier one, then you can profit from referring affiliates to that site.

Maybe you can add some “related” affiliate links? But don’t add affiliate links for the sake of adding them. If something does not fit, then don’t add any links.

There is NO harm in having blog posts that promote nothing. It adds to the amount of content on your website. Google and other search engines love blogs filled with content.

If you want a certain post to be ranked high, then it also depends on the total quality of your blog. If you have tonnes of content, then you certainly have something useful. But beware, you need tonnes of original content. And that’s what PowerBlogging gives you.

You cast a wide net. You start getting SE traffic for keywords you never had thought about. Since your content is original and complete, you don’t need to use “blackhat” and “artificial” methods to get traffic.

You want your traffic to appreciate your content. And this is what PowerBlogging delivers. And, we’re not finished yet. To say the least, we’ve just begun.

Why Are Forums A Good Idea Source?

When writing on topics actively discussed in forums, you write posts on “unanswered” topics. Or topics which don’t have a firm answer. This prevents you from having a blog filled with rehashed PLR style content. And this also means that, your blog has a good chance of being linked-to by other blogs.

And, never just join “professional” forums. Stick around in forums wherein newcomers interact. See which questions are repetitive in the forum. And just like you would reply to them, write a detailed blog post tackling this very problem.

Forums thus can be a source of very great ideas. And those ideas are not limited to “problems” or “plans”. They can be anything. Forums can often hint towards controversial ideas, which you can find from the sheer number of replies such topic get.

Then what? Write your own opinion on your blog. Many may disagree with your controversial opinion. But what you have is, another quality post added to your blog, as well as chances of other bloggers linking to you.

Forums are such a powerful place.

So, the gist of PowerBlogging using Forums is:

1. Hang out in forums related to your niche. Interact with ALL types of crowd, whether novice or professional
2. Whenever you feel like hitting the reply button (i.e. expressing your opinion), create a blog post on the same. The blog post will be detailed since you even have to state the problem/question first (in forums, this is done by the topic creator). What follows is your own opinion, your own voice. You don’t need to reply in the forums. You only have to get the “feeling” of replying.
3. Add affiliate links ONLY if relevant. Don’t spam.
4. Hit Post.
5. Rinse and Repeat

I’ll talk about the advantages of PowerBlogging in a latter section, but let’s move on to some more idea sources.

Since you already know how to use forums, you should automatically know how you should use the idea sources I mention below. Remember, don’t confine yourself to whatever I said. Try out your own ideas. That’s the only way to be remarkable.

Now we’re at last here. But I should warn you beforehand, if you have not read the previous chapters properly, you’re at a serious disadvantage. And one more thing, PowerBlogging is such a simple concept that you can be fooled by it’s simplicity. But the power that resides inside it requires a simple and open mind. Don’t complicate simple stuff.

I defined what blogging is, and then told you the importance of an idea source for a reason. Now, it’s time to put them all together.

Blogging is expressing your opinion, right? And the topics that you express your opinion on comes from the idea source. And you already have access to both, it’s just that you never realized.

PowerBlogging is best explained by follow-along examples. And that’s what I’m going to do.

Prepare to know the information that you can’t otherwise buy, beg or steal.

In blogging, there is just one simple rule. That is to keep blogging.

This is where more than 90% of your competition will fall off their feet. “What do I write about?”, “I don’t know how to write”, “How do you write that many posts so easily”, are the questions that keep popping out of the mouths of novice bloggers.

Their query is absolutely right. I appreciate them for that. They ask questions instead of assuming the answer. But there is one little problem. Hardly anyone gives the correct answer. And even if he does, there are so many crap answers along with it, that the novice eventually gets confused and falls into the same old trap.

And what happens then? He has a blog that he has been running for a year. And yet, looking at the post count, and the various other features of the blog, you feel as if he just installed WordPress.

This is why an idea source is important. You need to have a constant source of “post ideas”, that gives you ideas on what to write about. And you don’t want to work harder than it actually requires. As you will soon find out, all of the work has been done for you.

This doesn’t mean you have been left with no work. But it merely means that your work is NOT what you’ve been doing all along. It’s far beyond that.

The tasks with which a non-PowerBlogger ends his days are the ones with which a PowerBlogger begins his own.

Many newcomers spend tens of hours searching for content ideas for their new blog. But that’s not your job! Your job is to work on ideas already present, raising your own voice. And your job is to come up with new ideas on the basis of ideas already present. In Seth Godin’s books, “The Purple Cow” and “The Big Moo”, which I highly recommend, he explains how you can start being remarkable from now. And believe me, it isn’t difficult.

My ideas are largely inspired by Seth’s thoughts and philosophies. And I’ll show you how being on the cutting edge will reduce your work by more than 50% than other failing bloggers.

But the gist of this chapter is this. You don’t need to spend most of your time on your blog thinking about what to write. You ALREADY know that. What you should focus on is writing what you’ve already thought about, from the vast expanse of idea source already present.

As I mentioned above, many people try to create websites on platforms like WordPress, and incorrectly represent it as a blog.

What is a website? Blogging has not changed the way information is exchanged on the internet. It has merely added another way of going about doing the same.

A website has a clean hierarchy. Everything follows logical order. It’s like reading a book. It begins at the very beginning, and it ends at the very end. Websites are complete.

A blog is a total mess (in a good way). People come to read nuggets of wisdom in them. They are not probably a complete reference. Thoughts about different things are scattered all around. If you do build a complete reference style site on WordPress, you’ll end up finding that it represents more or less a website. And many people try hard finding CMS style templates for WordPress.

Ken Evoy of Site Build It! said that blogs have more bounce rates than websites. This is true in many cases, and untrue in many.

If you’re trying to attract “broad information” traffic, then these people are looking for complete information. They’re more attracted towards sites having good hierarchy. And this is the type of traffic most bloggers end up trying to attract. And I guess, this is precisely why Ken Evoy says blogs have more bounce rates.

So decide for yourself, what you’d like to build. And then choose the right path.

And if you’re still reading, that finishes your pre-requisite. It was important to tell you all that before jumping into PowerBlogging.